Cryptocoin Mining?

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wbynum

Senior member
Jul 14, 2005
302
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Yeah I'm running GUI Miner on my HD 6970. I'm going to buy a couple of HD 5830s for mining.

Does anyone know if running in a 4x slot affects a cards hash rate?

No effect. BTC mining needs very little bandwidth. Much less than even a 1x slot delivers. Many, many people over on the bitcoin forums use 1x PCI-E extender cables to run the cards off the 1x slots.
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
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How did you figure this? Maybe this is a reason to upgrade. Which GPU gives best bang for the buck?

I used this site to calculate:
http://bitcoinx.com/profit/index.php

Notice that even at 600 MHash/s (better than any single GPU, although a 5970 or 6990 could surpass that), time to generate a block is estimated at 36 days, and it'll actually be likely longer due to difficulty increases. Unless you have a whole farm of machines, solo mining is just so random that there is a good chance of never finding anything.

Joining a pool is really the only way to see any reliable form of incoming bitcoins, as generating a block just takes too long on average.

As other have said, the $109 5830 is a great mining card for the money. If you can find a cheap 5850 (such as the $149 deal that is currently sold out), that is another good option. You can use this page as a reference, as it shows what sort of MHash/s to expect from each card:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison
 
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YoungGun21

Platinum Member
Aug 17, 2006
2,551
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Difficulty increases have slowed us, but my friends and I should be over 1GHash/s by midweek. Should be over 2GHash before the next difficulty increase.
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
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Newegg is now sold out of the cheap sapphire 5830s that were going for $109. I attribute this to bitcoin mining rig buyers, as the card was never very popular as a gaming card.

edit: Actually, newegg is sold out of ALL 5800 series radeon cards. Bitcoins must be doing wonders for AMD.
 
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hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
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Newegg is now sold out of the cheap sapphire 5830s that were going for $109. I attribute this to bitcoin mining rig buyers, as the card was never very popular as a gaming card.

edit: Actually, newegg is sold out of ALL 5800 series radeon cards. Bitcoins must be doing wonders for AMD.

Glad I got in on that 5830 while it was still available.
 

Jionix

Senior member
Jan 12, 2011
238
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This is very interesting, but strikes me as "Too good to be true". It just doesn't have any logic behind --- there is value in calculating random, useless code? No, there isn't.

Who is pegging the value of bitcoins? Who gives them that authority? Who's to say that someone won't be able to forge bitcoins easily, since they are only computer based?

Those are just a few things that will stop bitcoins from ever becoming recognized. The likelihood that any legitimate entity will ever recognize or lend credibility to bitcoins is probably zero.
 

dust

Golden Member
Oct 13, 2008
1,339
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This is very interesting, but strikes me as "Too good to be true". It just doesn't have any logic behind --- there is value in calculating random, useless code? No, there isn't.

Who is pegging the value of bitcoins? Who gives them that authority? Who's to say that someone won't be able to forge bitcoins easily, since they are only computer based?

Those are just a few things that will stop bitcoins from ever becoming recognized. The likelihood that any legitimate entity will ever recognize or lend credibility to bitcoins is probably zero.

846.702 Ghash/s is only my cluster's current performance. Since a single GPU averages at 300Mhash/s, I'd say there are plenty of people finding the process good enough.

I don't pretend to fully understand it myself but there are plenty of explanatory pages here: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=1ef07215906afb730b702e1cf4df049e&

There are plenty of cases where the people exchanged the bitcoins into real currency, so I would say that they have already been recognized.
 

dakU7

Senior member
Sep 15, 2010
515
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bah. Two rigs were mining all night, 2X5750 + 2X6850 = ~750 Mhash/s.
All i got is 0.22 BTC lol.
 

Vesku

Diamond Member
Aug 25, 2005
3,743
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My Sapphire 5830 just arrived, mildly annoyed to find it out of stock when I decided that a crossfire + GPU computing setup would be nice. Hope they come back in stock. The 5850 I regret not buying never re-surfaced.
 

Vesku

Diamond Member
Aug 25, 2005
3,743
28
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I'd like to keep it the exact same card for Crossfire, don't need to add in anymore variables for multi-gpu. Decent in stock card for fellow miners though.
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
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I'd like to keep it the exact same card for Crossfire, don't need to add in anymore variables for multi-gpu. Decent in stock card for fellow miners though.

I'd tell you that amazon has the sapphire 5830 for sale for $118... but I just bought the last one.
 

dakU7

Senior member
Sep 15, 2010
515
0
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I'm going in vacation next week, and I want to buy a 5830 and add it to my 6850s to mine 24/7 for a 6 weeks.
Is that a good idea? The 6850s are pulling 260Mhash/s each @ 85c, 65c. So I'm going go get roughly 1Gh/s with the 5830 plus my second rig, but should I be worried about the heat and stress?
 

Dark Shroud

Golden Member
Mar 26, 2010
1,576
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If you're that worried open the side of your case up and go buy a little high speed fan to point inside and leave that sucker blowing.
 

pcm81

Senior member
Mar 11, 2011
581
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If you're that worried open the side of your case up and go buy a little high speed fan to point inside and leave that sucker blowing.

and then the first night you are gone there will be a 5-minute power outage, so your computer will stay shut down for the rest of your vacation.... with fan blowing at it all 6 weeks.
 
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blanketyblank

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
1,149
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I just tried pool mining for a few hours. I'm not really seeing how this pans out to any sort of profit. 1 hour of computer usage is something like 5+ cents of electricity while the profits generated might be something like .01BTC. I'm not sure what the conversion is here, but unless 1 BTC is worth 5 times as much as dollars not sure how this profitable.
 

dakU7

Senior member
Sep 15, 2010
515
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and then the first night you are gone there will be a 5-minute power outage, so your computer will stay shut down for the rest of your vacation.... with fan blowing at it all 6 weeks.

Haha that would suck so much.
But I'm going to monitor my rig from distance, and my bro will stay at my place so he can shut it off/on when necessary, i'm just worried 85c is too high for 24/6 weeks
 

pcm81

Senior member
Mar 11, 2011
581
9
81
I just tried pool mining for a few hours. I'm not really seeing how this pans out to any sort of profit. 1 hour of computer usage is something like 5+ cents of electricity while the profits generated might be something like .01BTC. I'm not sure what the conversion is here, but unless 1 BTC is worth 5 times as much as dollars not sure how this profitable.

CPU mining is not profitable. With 2x 6990s i am making between 2 and 3 bicoins a day (24 hr). At $17 per bit coin... you do the math...
 

blanketyblank

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
1,149
0
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CPU mining is not profitable. With 2x 6990s i am making between 2 and 3 bicoins a day (24 hr). At $17 per bit coin... you do the math...

I see that makes sense then. Didn't realize the bit coin to dollar ratio was so high.
 

dust

Golden Member
Oct 13, 2008
1,339
2
71
Wow! You personally have a cluster running that? What hardware is behind that?

When you refer to the company you work in as" my company's policies, my company's office", does that necessarily mean you own it? Maybe my English isn't good enough!
 

hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
2
76
When you refer to the company you work in as" my company's policies, my company's office", does that necessarily mean you own it? Maybe my English isn't good enough!

Unless I can't read, you didn't mention a company in your post. All you said was "my cluster", so I had to ask!
 

Dark Shroud

Golden Member
Mar 26, 2010
1,576
1
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and then the first night you are gone there will be a 5-minute power outage, so your computer will stay shut down for the rest of your vacation.... with fan blowing at it all 6 weeks.

Assuming he doesn't have a PSU for such a large load to prevent that. The fan's power usage would be minor.